Malik`s wish for a meeting with Sonia turned down

New Delhi: Visiting Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday but will not have an interaction with Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi.

Official sources said the Prime Ministers` office had agreed to a morning meeting with Malik after a request was made for the same by the Pakistani authorities through diplomatic channels.

The sources said meetings with the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and National Security Advisor Shiv Sahnker Menon are also being fixed at the request of Malik for Saturday before he returns on the same afternoon.

However, the Ministry of External Affairs turned down the desire of the Pakistani side for a meeting with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the sources said.

The Pakistani Interior Minister will be arriving tomorrow at the Palam Technical Airport at 2 PM along with his wife and a delegation which includes officials from Federal Investigating Agency.

The official-level talks will be held at 5PM after which a joint statement is expected to be released in the presence by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Malik announcing operationalisation of new Indo-Pak liberalised visa agreement signed during the visit of the then External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar in September this year.